Game 7s Make Everything Better

The erstwhile upstarts of Major League Baseball’s postseason are long gone, leaving fans with a much more spare and abstract experience revolving around watching good but very familiar teams play good baseball, familiarly. The same seven or so television commercials seem to repeat endlessly on each broadcast, which is even less fun than it sounds. Tim McCarver’s anecdotes seem half as attached to reality and are taking twice as long to tell. But there is very little in terms of baseball fan complaints—even reasonable ones—that can’t be set right by the words “Game 7.” When the San Francisco Giants bombed the St. Louis Cardinals on Sunday night, they not only fended off elimination for a second straight game, they set up a final and decisive game in the National League Championship Series. A Game 7 is a Game 7 is a Game 7, and that’s great regardless of the teams involved.

It’s probably best to save some credit for Game 7 for the amazing disappearing offense of the St. Louis Cardinals, as well. But throughout the series these two teams have shared this high-intensity see-saw to great dramatic effect, with each team’s weaknesses complementing the other’s. That’s how Game 7s happen, of course. But they’re especially hard to predict when the two teams squaring off are so well-matched. “The Cardinals are used to winning these kind of brawls,” the St. Louis Post-Dispatch’s Bernie Miklasz writes. “They are used to being behind on the judges’ scorecards, only to flurry in the last round and win by knockout. But there’s a problem: the Giants are the same way.”

But those streaks won’t come to an end without our having to say something about it – join us tonight at 8 p.m. ET. for a live blog of the game.

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The University of Oregon did Thursday what it has done in each of its seven college football games this season: win. And yet the undefeated Ducks fell from third to fourth in the BCS rankings after their romp over Arizona State. The practical reasons for this are as familiar, picayune and exhausting as anything brought to you by the letters B,C, and S. But the biggest reason for Oregon’s slide, or at least the one that’s most fun to talk about, is the wild rise of Kansas State, which moved up to third from fourth in the rankings after routing a tough West Virginia team, 55-14.

It was the Wildcats’ third road win against a ranked opponent, which is a feat in itself. It’s doubly impressive, given that Kansas State was no one’s pick to be nearly this good. “Based on the recruiting rankings, the Wildcats are certifiable overachievers,” Sports Illustrated’s Stewart Mandel writes. “But that doesn’t mean they’re not elite.”

The Bill Snyder coaching at K-State, by the way, is the same one who turned the program around during the 1990s. Snyder retired, un-retired, and has once again worked something like magic in Manhattan, Kan.. In a year in which Duke has awakened from a generation of zombiedom, Snyder’s program-resurrection stands as one of the most remarkable in recent memory.

“Snyder tunes into the timeless motivation of men wanting to be better men, players wanting to be better players and teams wanting to win championships,” Yahoo’s Dan Wetzel writes. “Everyone here knows there is no margin for error, that they aren’t sure-bet NFL stars, so it becomes a group thing. The plan is the plan, the commandments are the commandments. Commit to it, and eventually scoreboards spin, opposing fans try to beat the traffic and even the BCS can’t ignore this little team in purple.

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Reasonable parties—or baseball fans, whichever—can disagree about how important a manager is to a team’s record. But everyone should be able to agree that managers are not as important as players, if only because players (as the name suggests) actually play. But while it’s seldom a good look for a team to trade a player for a manager, it is inarguably a thing that sometimes happens. Over the weekend, it happened again, when the Boston Red Sox agreed to send infielder Mike Aviles to the Toronto Blue Jays in exchange for manager John Farrell and minor-league pitcher David Carpenter.

This is a unique situation for several reasons, starting with the fact that Farrell was Boston’s pitching coach during the team’s 2007-10 heyday, and was reportedly one of the preferred candidates for the managerial job that belonged—briefly, loudly, hilariously—to Bobby Valentine last season. As with any player-for-manager deal, it will put pressure on the G.M. who swapped the participant for the non-participant. But, however it works out, the move does at least do much to undo last year’s slapstick tragicomedy at Fenway.

“Farrell’s hiring says as much about what went wrong last offseason as it does with what the team hopes will go right in the seasons to come,” Sports Illustrated’s Ted Keith writes. “Farrell was the man who was supposed to be the perfect fit, both for the respect he commanded as a former coach and the skill he’d had at working with the Red Sox’ pitchers. Instead, Boston went with the mismatched Valentine. Now, to borrow the infamous phrase of one of the team’s most popular players, they have someone who knows how they do things there.” Just how much this restoration does for the team is unknowable. The answer, as usual, will be up to the players to provide.

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Comments (3 of 3)

It's funny that you feel that Buck and McCarver are rooting for the Cardinals because we here in Cardinal Nation feel the opposite. We feel that they're always against the Cardinals, especially the last two games. I guess it shows that fans always think their teams are getting the raw end of the deal. I'd much rather watch the game on FoxSportsMidwest where the announcers know the teams. I can't wait for Game 7. Should be a classic, regardless of the outcome. It's great to watch two teams that never say die.

3:05 pm October 22, 2012

rdm wrote:

The bias of Buck and McCarver seems less of an issue than their ineptitude in making the game interesting. Their broadcasts are full of platitudes, cliches, misinformation and little insight. The best thing about the Fox broadcasts is the ultra slo mo showing various pitches. But this is nothing new. There are lots of talented play by play and color analysts out there. Why does Fox stick with these bozos is beyond comprehension.

2:47 pm October 22, 2012

GiantsFan wrote:

The real story is how Fox allows two Cardinal people call this series. How can you have announcers that are clearly rooting for one side on national TV? Really frustrating watching as a Giants fan. Have to listen to Kruk and Kuip on the radio.

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